The technology described herein relates to a method of and an apparatus for graphics processing, and in particular to a method of and an apparatus for “multiview”, such as stereoscopic, rendering.
It is becoming increasingly common for graphics processing systems to be required to perform so-called “multiview” rendering. In this case, plural different views of a given scene are rendered, so as to create a set of images of the scene, e.g. with each image viewing the scene from a different viewpoint.
An example of this is stereoscopic rendering in which two images are rendered from different viewpoints. Typically, two images of a scene (“a stereo image pair”), one corresponding to the scene as seen from the left eye (a “left image”), and one corresponding to the scene as seen from the right eye (a “right image”), are generated and then displayed appropriately so as to provide a three-dimensional effect when the images are viewed. It is also known to generate and provide more than two views of a scene, for example for a lenticular display (which can, for example, use four or more images offset from each other).
It is also known to generate and provide a set of two or more images representing a given scene from the same viewpoint, but with e.g. a different field of view or scaling factor to the scene. This allows a graphics processor to, e.g., render parts of the scene from the same viewpoint at different resolutions.
When generating the multiple views required, typically the image corresponding to each respective view (be it a view from the same or a different viewpoint to another view of the set of images) is generated separately and then the images are displayed appropriately to achieve the desired, e.g., 3D, effect.
The Applicants believe that there remains scope for improvements to the generation of multiple images corresponding to multiple different views of the same scene when performing multiview, such as stereoscopic, rendering in graphics processing systems.
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